Who Needs Powers?
by Zoryan El Muerto
Summary: Years into the future, after the events of the series finale. A young boy without superpowers comes to the bodega, with a past shrouded in mystery. Follow Xyle as we see how his view of heroes progress, and how he proves you can be super without powers or special abilities.
1. Chapter 1

The story begins with a bus down a winding forest path, the vehicle then passes a sign that says 'Welcome to the Neutral Zone'. In the back seat sat a small figure in a black hoodie with the hood covering their face, sweat pants, and black sneakers. Playing on a Nintendex Switch with their black fingerless gloves, they just decapitated their last zombie as the bus stopped. They looked up from the now completed game to see where they arrived, "Lakewood Plaza Turbo?" the figure wondered.

They then pulled down the hood to reveal the face of a young boy with flamingo colored hair tied into dread locks, mint green skin, a little pink nose, and one canine tooth sticking out of the right side of his lips. "So this is the place?" he looked around, seeing all the heroes that roamed the plaza. Some oldies like Shy Ninja, Sparko, Dogmun. And some newbies like Skater Boy, those who are looking to one day fight on the side of justice.

"Bleh, heroes." he sneered before he entered the bodega. He pulled out a list, "Let's see, milk, laser chips, towels-" the kid then heard a bang as he heard people screaming outside.

_"Gah, not again." _He heard a voice before running outside to see the commotion. And he saw a tall tan skinned boy with a blue crop top, dark purple shorts and boots with tape around his wrists. His hair was dark green with a puffy tuff up front with two antennas sticking out at the top, which seemed to be glowing pink as they deflected several bombs away.

He also saw a girl with the same crop top as the boy, with cyan skin, dark blue pants, white boots, muscled arms and legs, and pink hair. She sent a couple flaming kicks to a robot with blue frame and a yellow face with a cannon for an arm shooting bombs out of it.

The two nonmetallic beings he presumed were employees, while tough they were obviously struggling against the robot. Suddenly the two were tossed back, the robot chuckling evilly as he took noticed of the audience. "Well what do we have here? Another wannabe hero to get their buts whopped by me, Robbie!"

The kid narrowed his eyes, "Look can you just leave so I can pick up some things, I'm on a tight scheduled here with a minimal budget so this is the cheapest I can find."

"Be careful kid!" the lady worker exclaimed.

"Run while you still can!" the boy stated.

"I'd listen to them if I were you." Robbie cackled before he aimed his cannon at the boy. Who just kept the dark glare at the robot, "Ok, dotn say I didn't warn yo-" he suddenly seized, the fuse on the bomb in his arm dropped down with the flame extinguished. "What they?"

Robbie then noticed some kind of chip on his chest, he looked up to see the kid pulling out a remote controller before pushing a few buttons. "Up, down, X, square, O. And now you blow up." The robot raised an eyebrow before he blew up, his head flying back to Boxmore.

The two workers stared in wonder as a Robbie robot was dealt with so easily, by someone other than their boss. "Woah." The kid then approached them. The boy worker asked, "How did you do that? What kind of power do you have to take over that robot?"

The kid glared at him before explaining, "I don't have powers, just shot a micro chip at him which let me override his systems and I used my nifty controller here to do the rest." He showed them the little wrist gauntlet he has under his left sleeve.

"Wow, that's actually pretty cool." The lady said.

"Whatever."

_"BODEGA MEN!" _

The young adults flinched before leaping back into the store, "Yes, Mr. KO!" the kid followed after them, and saw them saluting to who he presumed was the boss. Who was a tall man with big muscles on his arms with very skinny legs, he had an undershirt with a jean vest and jean shorts. He had a red headband, wristbands, and pink anklets.

"What happened here?" the boss questioned.

The lady then said, "Just another Robbie invasion, we barely survived but thankfully this kid came by and-"

"So your the boss around here huh?" Mr. KO jumped when the kid showed up behind him, he didn't know why but he swore that the kid is hiding a look of pure anger inside.

"Why yes, and you are?" Mr. KO wondered.

"Just a kid looking around." the kid said slowly. He noticed the look the large man gave him and snarled, "What?"

"I don't know why, but you seem kind of familiar." suddenly they heard the bell chime at the front door. KO excused himself from the group, the two workers than looked to the kid again.

"So you got a name?" the lady asked.

The kid looked to the lady, with a cold look and said "Xyle. And you are?"

"I'm Erma, and this is Joey." the lady said.

"Hey." Xyle just wordlessly left the two to finish his shopping, Erma and Joey turned to each other. Joey then said, "He seems nice."

Erma then commented, "So what do you think Mr. KO meant when he said he looked familiar?"

"Heck if I know." Joey replied.

(With Mr. KO)

He just helped an old lady with her shopping, and carried them to her car. "Thanks again, sonny." she said gratefully before driving off.

"You're welcome Ms. Finegold!" he waved back, "Well back to my office for some paperwork-" just as he turned around.

_"Long time no see, Momma's boy." _

Mr. KO went wide eyed and froze, 'Oh dear, only one person calls me that' he looked around to see where the voice came from, but he found nothing. He narrowed his eyes, scanning every bit of the parking lot for the voice. He shrugged, "Eh, probably nothing." He went back to the store, but as the electronic doors flew open.

"Sup."

"GAH!" he jumped when he saw a figure stood there at the door. "Fink?"

Fink, who was now a fully grown woman with longer dark green hair, mint green skin, wearing a lab coat style dress with black tights underneath, grey boots and pink gloves, stood there with a grin "How's it going Momma's boy, though I can't really call you a boy anymore huh?" she looked over KO's fully grown body.

**_TBC_**


	2. Chapter 2

Xyle's frown never let up, he just wants to get the stuff he needs and go home. Then Robbie came in and started trashing everything, the bodega-men tried to use their powers against the robot and look how that went. So he had to begrudgingly play the hero and stop him, which Erma wouldn't stop talking about as she scanned his items. "You know kid, you could be a great hero with gadgets like that controller chip. Give some recognition to those who don't have superpowers."

He rolled his eyes and turned away, "Whatever." he's got other gadgets as well which will appear as the story progresses.

Erma was taken aback by his response, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Xyle said darkly.

"Doesn't sound like nothing." Joey commented as he restocked an entire shelf of beans with a levitation beam from his finger. "Look whatever's bugging yah, you can tell us-"

"I'm fine!" he exclaimed to the stock boy. "I just want to grab my things and head home without spending anymore time than I need to around stinking heroes!" the staff were taken aback by his tone.

"Jeez, what you got against heroes?" Erma questioned as she placed the last item in a bag. "That'll be $14.70."

Xyle handed her 15 dollars, "Keep the change, and it's none of your business." he stormed out after grabbing the bag of food. Joey and Erma watched as he stomped out of the bodega.

"What's with him?" Erma wondered.

"Don't ask me, I'm just the stock boy not a mind reader." Joey said before he leaned on the counter, "Anyway, did you hear last night's news story: 22 more superpower users went missing. The numbers just keep increasing with each week."

"Yeah, whoever's behind these kidnappings must be serious. They got retired POINT heroes and rising heroes and villains, they don't discriminate." Erma responded, then she got a sadden look. "They even got my moms."

Joey then gained a sadden look too, "They also took my dad away, I hope they're okay."

"Me too."

(with KO)

He brought Fink into his office, which was Mr. Gar's old office, still as dark as ever with only the monitors for light. He looked over some papers at his desk while Fink took a look at some of the posters he put up when he inherited thee bodega, "So I see not much has changed from last time, other than the staff. Same dumb bodega, same dumb prices, same dumb you."

"Why are you here anyway?" KO questioned aggravatedly as he looked up from his desk, "I know you didn't come here just to chat."

"Geez, what's got you worked up? This isn't like when we were kids."

KO narrowed his eyes at Fink, before sighing "Just the latest disappearance in the hero circuit."

"You know heroes aren't the only ones that are going missing, my third villain ex was also taken a week ago." Fink said uncaringly.

KO went back to the papers, which were the reports about the disappearances "I've been looking into this case for years, ever since my friends Rad and Enid mysteriously vanished."

Fink blinked in surprise when she heard that, "Oh, I see." she then sat on the desk. "Why don't you ask your kappa wife to help you? Dendy I think her name was. She's a whiz with computers and can connect to any software on the planet that has loads of data on-" she stopped when she saw him with a crestfallen look on his face as he pulled out a picture of Dendy, it was taken after she was appointed CEO of POW Industries. KO's eyes started to water and Fink filled in the blanks before she gained a look of remorse, "Oh, oh dear." she then gave him a little hug. "I am so sorry for your lost." it was a pity hug.

KO sniffled as he let her embrace take over him, "When I find the creep that took her and my friends, I'll make them pay." he said in a gravelly voice. She rested her head on his shoulder.

"So did you find anything?" Fink asked. KO just let out a tired groan, "I'll take that as a 'no'." she released her embrace and shook him out of his tired state before turning him to face her, "Look I don't often do this, but-"

KO looked at her like she grew a second head. "Are you... offering to …. help-"

"Fine I'll do it just stop begging me" she interrupted, "besides you still owe me for the Summer of 227X." she gave him a sly wink.

"I thought we agreed not to bring that up." KO narrowed his eyes at her.

(later)

Xyle waited outside the store with the bag, his foot tapping impatiently as he leaned against the window, he heard the ping of the automatic doors. "Ready to go?" he turned to look to see Fink walking out with a light smile, he puffed a little before walking over to her and grabbing her hand.

"Yes, mother." the two then walked away from the bodega and to a purple convertible. As they drove off, Xyle glared back to the shrinking bodega "(spits out the window) I can't stand superheroes."

Fink, who was driving, "Yeah I know, heroes are the worst." she chuckled.

"They think they're _sooooooo coooooool_, 'Oh look at me I can fly and have super strength and can shoot energy fists' "he mocked in a high pitched voice before crossing his arms. "Barf out loud, people with superpowers just make me sick" he grumbled. Fink let out a worried look but kept driving. Xyle used to love heroes, he's had posters and costumes and everything. But ever since he was 5 that love turned into hatred. Especially ones with abilities not many have, it started when he met his biggest hero and wanted to be his sidekick.

He didn't have any special powers, but he was a prodigy when it came to making gadgets and other helpful tools. He never told her which hero, only that they coldly rejected him because he didn't have powers. Fink sighed before looking to her son as they stopped at a red light, she reached over to pat him on the shoulder comfortingly. He just inhaled lightly before leaning into the touch.

There was only one hero he still loved, his mother. She was always there for him, and still is.

"Hey, I'm gonna be out job hunting tomorrow. So I hope you don't mind I hired a babysitter." she said guiltily.

He emotionlessly replied with, "I'll live."


End file.
